Teras Kasi is a martial art in the SW extended universe designed by a culture that got screwed by the Jedi once and decided to find a way to counter them. They learn how to mask themselves from the Force and turn their fists into lethal weapons. It's pretty much Star Wars Kung Fu.

The time frame on it is appropriate for the game time frame, at least as a reasonably fresh discipline (it was developed some vague time frame before the Old Republic Era), but the problem, as I see it, exists insofar as Teras Kasi is pretty much defined as being an anti-Jedi fighting style developed by a culture pretty much defined as being anti-Jedi. There is some evidence that Teras Kasi was used by some Jedi/Sith, but there's some question as to how exactly they learned it. The problem, overall, is that it would be difficult to explain exactly why a Teras Kasi master would join either the Republic, which has Jedi actively involved in its governance and upkeep, or the Empire, which is explicitly run by the Sith.

The more likely class, as I see it, is having an Echani combat specialist: light/medium armor that uses vibroblades and fist weapons (the game has some artefactual remnants that suggest that fist weapons existed at some point and have the baseline code laid out for the eventual implementation). Depending on how the developer's feel like fleshing it out, the mirror classes could be identical (Echani Fighter) or split between the Thyrsians (Sith cultists) and baseline Echani (generally considered to be Republic sympathizers or close enough). It would still provide the whole "fist weapons and martial arts" class that people would want from Teras Kasi while having fewer problems within the confines of the game universe.

The game seems to be set roughly around 3,653 BBY and their combat art was created 3,678 BBY.

Well, the creation of the style was "sometime prior to 3678" so it's not like there has only been 25 years for the style to develop. It's been around before that time; it's just that's the first time that it's been directly referenced in dated canon level material.

It's important to note that the reason we get that year for Teras Kasi is because there is Teras Kasi used in the TOR prequel comic (which was released by BW as promo material for TOR in 2009 apparently, though I can't find it), so it's not like it doesn't exist in this time frame (assuming we can trust the wiki that it actually *is* practiced and not simply a generic martial arts style that is unnamed and assumed to be Teras Kasi). The problem with Teras Kasi isn't the time frame. It's the intent and alignment of the style and how it interacts with the fact that both factions are deeply aligned with their respective Force wielding order. It's hard to write a sensible story for a character that is supposed to be decidedly anti-Force when more than half of the people they're going to encounter as players and a substantial portion of their faction are Jedi and/or Sith.

Well, the creation of the style was "sometime prior to 3678" so it's not like there has only been 25 years for the style to develop. It's been around before that time; it's just that's the first time that it's been directly referenced in dated canon level material.

It's important to note that the reason we get that year for Teras Kasi is because there is Teras Kasi used in the TOR prequel comic (which was released by BW as promo material for TOR in 2009 apparently, though I can't find it), so it's not like it doesn't exist in this time frame (assuming we can trust the wiki that it actually *is* practiced and not simply a generic martial arts style that is unnamed and assumed to be Teras Kasi). The problem with Teras Kasi isn't the time frame. It's the intent and alignment of the style and how it interacts with the fact that both factions are deeply aligned with their respective Force wielding order. It's hard to write a sensible story for a character that is supposed to be decidedly anti-Force when more than half of the people they're going to encounter as players and a substantial portion of their faction are Jedi and/or Sith.

Ah, my bad. That would be nice to have them if they fit the timeline, I would probably roll one as an alt if they added them.

I've only just heard of this now from this thread and... I kinda hope not. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for new classes, but in what universe does fist beat lightsaber?

The same universe where sword (since that's what a lightsaber is, in all honesty) beats gun. We're talking about a space faring fantasy game here. We're allowed to abandon certain pretexts in the name of the "Rule of Cool" as long as it makes sense within the understood rules of the genre and the game universe. Unarmed combat (or, at least, fist weapon combat) makes sense under both of those conditions: Teras Kasi Masters and Echani Fighters are both non-Force using light armored melee combatants that have strong traditions of unarmed combat that are supposed to be able to compete with the abilities of Jedi and, within the confines of fantasy combat, monks are supposed to be able to take on anyone.

It's also important to note that each base class within TOR represents a specific character in universe. This isn't WoW, where everyone is pretty much an average Joe with a disparate background that decides to start fighting (except for Death Knights). In TOR, troopers are, explicitly, the friggin' best soldier in the entire Republic military and Smugglers are absurdly lucky and skilled on the level of Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. The Force users are good (re: amazing), but they're not the absolute best of their respective disciplines (I don't think anyone claims that their Jedi is supposed to be stronger than Malgus, the Emperor, Satele Shan, the Dread Lords, Revan, etc.). The game-world balance requires that the *absolute best* in a non-Force using field be able to compete with exceptional (but not "best") members of the Force-using combat disciplines. So, if you're the wunderkind Teras Kasi or Echani fighter, it would make sense for you to be able to face off against even very good Jedi. You're the best of the best in what you do; they're just the best at what they do. It makes sense for a nominally "underpowered" discipline or fighting style be able to face off against a more potent variety.

It would be really great to have a true melee tank/dps class that fights with no weapons or maybe vibro pikes/ vibro knuckles

I do not know if this is against the rules so pardon me if so and delete this link I am about to post: I stumbled into it while researching on Teras Kasi class in SWTOR and I think it has very interesting and implementable points.

It expands also to Creature Handlers(Republic)/Droid Operators(Imperial) and put TKM in Republic with Royal Guard for the Empire.

Now I know from the Lore that TK Artists developed the skill to defend themselves from Force Wielders and would look a bit weird to someone to have them only on one side...but on the other hand one could learn the Teras Kasi and not being from the original tribe or cult etc. (read some Jedi and Sith allegedly used Teras Kasi techniques), so could be reasonable that the Republic decided to train some of their best in the art, while their empir has their Royal Guards, obviously skilled melee fighters.

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The statements and opinions expressed on these websites are solely those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views, nor are they endorsed by Bioware, LucasArts, and its licensors do not guarantee the accuracy of, and are in no way responsible for any content on these websites.